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Shortly after my first novel was published back in 1985
I was invited to speak at a branch of the Boston Public
Library. I was joined by two other published authors
neither of whom was known to me.
Having been published once, I saw this as an
opportunity to compare notes and perhaps gather useful
information from colleagues who had also undergone the
process of getting their work before the public. I also
wanted to hear from readers about my own work. One book
does not make a prolific writer. I had one story to
tell; did I have more? Did I miss something in the
process? Could I have done better? Did the other authors
have agents? How did they get them, and how did they
find and approach their publishers?
One of the author’s, like me, was riding the crest
of newly published authorship, having just had his first
novel published in hardcover. But the other author, she
was there to talk about her third novel. Third
novel! Now here was someone who had something to say. I
had all sorts of questions, especially about royalties
and things like paperback, foreign, tape and movie
rights. I was in the presence of a treasure trove of
information, a three times published author, and, if
time permitted, I was going on a treasure hunt.
If it surprises you that I was less interested in
talking about writing technique than methodology of
getting published, let this anecdotal encounter serve as
a guiding beacon in your search: be a sieve. Take in
everything and talk to anyone who might have something
to offer. You never know where the road will lead. As
you will undoubtedly learn, getting published in
today’s selective market requires persistence and
contacts above all else. It also requires that you have
an agent who knows the ropes and has the right
connections in the business.
Indeed, forget just about everything you read in
books about sending out letters and waiting for a
polite, personal response. Major publishing houses send
out thousands of form letters and “no thank you”
cards to deal with that approach. So how do you go about
getting published? How do you get your foot in the door?
As I learned from my first encounter with an
“established” author, don’t expect any help from a
publisher unless you can bring something to the table
that they want; don’t expect agents to be beating down
your door to represent you, they’re already busy with
clients of their own; don’t expect a good work to get
noticed based on merit, it doesn’t necessarily work
that way; and most definitely, don’t expect to be
treated without bias. Political correctness dominates
the field of publishing and book distribution. For a
profession that survives in the warm embrace of the
First Amendment, there is a closed-mindedness about the
publishing world that is sad but true.
In spite of the enormous hurdles in your way, getting
published is still possible, though an illusive dream
for most writers.
I have now had three of my works published in book
form, and one translated into Japanese. I have four
additional completed novels just waiting to make
millions, and am working on a sixth. I have written
literally hundreds of columns for newspapers, worked as
a journalist, and managed both a newspaper and magazine
as publisher and editor. I have also been published on
several occasions in a trade journal to the legal
profession, even though I am not a lawyer. Still, it is
difficult to get new work published. What I can offer
those seeking a career in writing is advice, most of it
hard learned, all of it important. There are lessons to
be learned in the business. I share them here for those
to whom free advice is the best kind.
First Lessons:
The first lesson in getting a book published is this:
publishers don’t want to have to publish anything. I
know it sounds harsh, but it is true. They want to make
money. But, since they are in the publishing business,
they might as well make money by publishing. You, dear
author, annoy them unless you can make money for them.
They don’t want to hear from you or your agent unless
there is something in it for them.
It’s a hard reality, but true.
Publishing is an expensive proposition and not all
books make money. For every so-called “best seller”
(and you will see what I mean by that misleading term
shortly), there are a hundred published works that
barely pay their costs, and not a small amount that
never even achieve that goal. That doesn’t mean these
are not good works, and maybe even great books. It just
means the publisher had other interests, and those
authors didn’t have the clout to demand that their
work be promoted seriously to the public. So, understand
the nature of the beast. Publishers pay big money to
authors who bring or promise to bring something to the
table, even if the author is not as competent a writer
as you. Publishers will pay for the name and/or the
notoriety, the political nature of the work (does it
have a correct social or cultural message?) and, yes,
good works, regardless of ideology, and push whatever
comes from those sources, hoping the buying
public takes an interest.
All the rest, go to the back of the line.
Second Lesson:
The second lesson is even more brutal than the first:
Publishers don’t want to have to read what you send
them. Unsolicited manuscripts annoy them even more than
your query letters. That’s why they send out form
cards by the bushel each month rejecting submissions and
proposals for submissions.
Dear writer, it is a bleak world out there (did I
mention that already?) and I bring bad news. Nobody
wants to hear from you or read your work. But they do
want to make money.
If I am painting what at first blush appears to be a
hopelessly dismal picture, have faith, for there is some
good news, too. Publishers have to read something or
they won’t be publishing long, or making money, which
is their prime directive. So, it’s a little like a
love/hate thing we have going here -- a symbiosis of
desperation to make money from known entities butting up
against desperation to get published from the unknown.
Publishers hate to hear from you, nothing personal, you
understand. I’m taking generically here. And you have
every right to be frustrated by their maddening
inaccessibility. Go ahead and hate them for the same
impersonal reasons. But, and here is the big BUT: you do
kind of need one another to continue, and with a little
luck, you might just break through the barriers placed
in your way and get noticed after all.
Third Lesson:
Get an agent. Did I say publishers need you,
the author? That was too kind of me, far too personal.
They need someone, anyone who they think will make them
money, and consistent with the second rule, can bring
name and/or notoriety with them to the table. If not
you, they’ll publish someone else, but they will
publish.
You need a good agent to open doors. But, as you will
find, getting an agent is as difficult as getting a
publisher. Many agencies are already busy promoting
known entities, or those they hope will make money for
them, and they have scant time for newcomers seeking the
one thing they have little enough of, time.
Agencies, too, have canned
“no thank you” cards and pre-printed letters for
people like us. Agencies, like publishers, specialize,
too. Some only want to promote what they deem
“literature”, others may be seeking “soft
fiction”; still others may specialize in “true
crime” or “adventure,
non-fiction” or “biographies”, or
“children’s (Harry Potter) books” a big
thing now. I think you get the point.
You have to know who you are approaching and what
their specialty is before proceeding.
But the bottom line is this: you will stand a much
better chance with an agent than without one. I had a
wonderful New York agent who knew absolutely everyone in
the publishing business. When she presented my work, she
usually did so over lunch with a principal in the
company. But, alas, even that kind of intimate contact
is no guarantee you will get published. What you may be
offering through your work may not be deemed a hot
property at that moment. Sometimes you can get ahead of
the curve and end up being rejected because an editor
simply “thinks” the time is not right. Don’t take
it personal.
As for finding an agent, my advice is to talk with
everyone you know, and let them know you are looking. I
did a small favor once for a visitor to the city. It was
a small thing. I provided directions and took the time
to talk for a moment about the city and how I loved to
write about it. I didn’t know this man from Adam, so
to speak. We got talking about Boston and one thing led
to another and he said he worked for a major publication
out of New York and had a friend who was an agent. Would
I mind if he gave her my name” he asked. I told him
I’d be truly pleased if he did, never expecting to
hear form him again. And I didn’t. Three weeks later I
heard from the agent. It works that way.
Another good source for agents is law firms or
lawyers. Many firms have literary specialists who are
hungry to promote new talent, and who will be happy to
work for the promise of a commission, which is usually
ten to twenty percent, depending on the deal.
Fourth lesson:
Don’t take rejection personally. I have been turned
down by every major publishing house in New York at
least once – ah, maybe three times. I keep the
rejection letters as a reminder of how wrong some people
can be. Nevertheless, a good undiscovered writer is like
a good undiscovered artist. Just because an editor
doesn’t take an interest in your current work
doesn’t mean the work is without merit. It is a mere
reflection of a reality that the right person has not
yet come along to read your work. There are very few
established artists I know of who don’t have closets
or back rooms filled with earlier works that are
eminently saleable, but not currently on the market.
An unpublished novel, assuming it is not time
sensitive, is a diamond in the rough. It is a bankable
property to someone, sometime. Be patient. If one or two
works are rejected, keep writing and producing a body of
even more work, always improving and refining your
style. Every published author I know, and admittedly
there is only a handful, have three or four novels in
the drawer. And every one, like me, has been asked: do
you have any more? If a publisher makes an investment in
you as an author, you can bet the investment will
increase if there is more than one work available.
Fifth lesson:
Promote yourself. Even if you are published by a
major publisher, don’t expect much in the way of front
end exposure. Your book will very likely not be the one
you see when you walk into a book store. Those spaces
are reserved for those titles publishing houses are
pushing. Also, you may get what they call a limited run
in only certain markets. One of my books had what a
major book distributor thought was a likely audience
from military readers. The distributor made sure that
the book was on bookshelves within twenty miles of every
major military base in the United States. That’s the
power of a distributor.
I sold foreign rights to my first novel because I
invested my own money in an ad with a major publishing
journal. In fairness, my publisher split the cost of the
ad and split the advance. First ad sold the rights to my
first novel to Japan. As it turned out, I made more
money in Japan than I did in the United States. It paid
off. Just think what a sustained push from a major
publisher would have produced in a dozen other
countries.
It’s helpful
to know how the publishing business works. One way
publishers can minimize their loss, and even make a
profit, is if they hype your book and give it a buzz.
Major publishers are good at this. If you are selected
for the big time, they will invest big money in
promotion. Ads, reviews, television and radio
appearances, billboards, the list is virtually endless
in what a publisher can do if they want to. If you have
a name people know, or have been in the news recently,
the odds are in your favor of getting some promotion.
The more promotion you get, the better chance you have
of getting your book on one of the all important Lists.
Most people aren’t aware of this little secret, but
“Best Sellers” are not created by popular demand for
a book. That’s right. You don’t get on the Best
Seller list based on books actually sold.
Best Sellers are created by the number of books
publishers push into stores. Have you ever wondered how
a book, not a week on the bookshelves, can make its way
onto every one of the Best Seller lists? Are that many
people buying the book so early? No! You get on the Best
Seller list by having a major publisher push your book
into book stores. Chain buyers, who really control the
marketplace, will invest heavily in books by taking
large orders for the title. Being so heavily invested in
a book creates its own need to sell – and usually,
they do. They will push a book onto the Best Seller list
by ordering the book themselves, then hope the buzz will
sell it to you. It almost always works.
You remain on the Best Seller list when the book
actually sells, but getting to the list is a trick of
the trade, and has nothing to do with how well your work
is selling at that time.
Sixth Lesson:
The publishing world is like Hollywood, ripe with
political correctness. This comes from personal
experience, conversations with those in the publishing
field whom I know, and agents who confide what they
acknowledge is a problem for new writers. Blacklisting
is alive and well in both the book publishing and book
distribution industries. Major distributors have
outright refused to carry eminently authoritative and
genuinely interesting and different titles that were
deemed politically insensitive to certain groups or
themes. As a budding author you have to decide what
comes first: the story you have to tell, or the
“spin” that is in vogue at the time. It is an
artistic choice that doesn’t come without great
sacrifice. Most of the major non fiction works published
in recent years that have been critical, say, of the
Clinton years, have come from independent publishers,
willing to take a chance. Most major New York publishers
won’t touch a book critical of one of their own.
That job goes to smaller presses with less book
chain clout.
This isn’t to say there aren’t publishers or
distributors for the “politically incorrect”
material, fiction or non-fiction, rather, it means that
you will simply have to find them. Because there a fewer
of these publishing houses, with fewer resources to
promote at their disposal, your chances of being
published and widely exposed for your work, will be
diminished considerably.
Seventh Rule:
Keep on selling. I am selling right now, this very
moment, with this very piece, venturing outside the safe
boundaries of Rule #6. I am critical of the very people
I seek out. Thankfully, I don’t need their money.
Still, one can always use more. But that’s not the
point. I started writing books seriously in 1985 because
I like to write, and have met with some success. I have
three published works and four novels I want to see
published:
The Miller Expedition, fiction, about an
entire archaeological team that disappears and is
thought to have been murdered somewhere in South
America. The search is given up until one day years
after the disappearance, a note arrives at the home of
two B.U. professors, whose daughter Karen, was a member
of the team. It reads simply: “Help me. I’m alive.
Start at Palenque.”
Killer of the Lion, fiction.
I came up with this idea from a U.S. News & World
Report article that said the translated name of Haffez
Assad of Syria was “Protector of the Lions”.
That’s all I needed. This is a Tom Clancy kind of
book. that involves the U.S. Sixth Fleet and commando
raids into the heart of enemy country during the close
of the cold war. One
of my early best.
Every Guilty Person,
fiction. This title and idea for a book, also came from
something I read. A quote from Roman philosopher,
Seneca, about the guilty not escaping eventual justice,
“for sooner or later every guilty person is his own
hangman.” Has anyone ever written a book about a
President’s wife who just happens to be a serial
murder? I have. Unfortunately, the characters resembled
a former President and his wife.
Twin Virtues,
fiction, is the name of a merchant ship headed to the
United States with a nuclear trigger device on board.
We know it’s coming. We know what’s on board.
We know the damage it can do. What we don’t know is
who wants it and where they intend to use it. We can
only hope we don’t lose the people once they arrive.
Ooops!
Zero Volume, fiction. A work in progress about
the meaning of everything. A work that is far too
complicated to explain here, a challenge to write, but
fun.
Wrapping up:
And
there you have it. My advice to those who, like me, are
prolific, if not Best Selling, authors. Be wary. Be
persistent. Trust your own instincts, and above all
else, keep faith in yourself. Find an agent who can find
a publisher who will make the investment to give you a
shot, and keep selling no matter what.
Talk yourself up, take advantage of opportunities
that present themselves to you, and write, write, write.
The bottom line is simple: there is no sure way in.
You have to be at the right place at the right time, and
have a measured degree of talent and luck. I can offer
this sure thing. You have a better chance of being a
Best Selling author than you do of winning the lottery.
I do find some solace in that.
PS: Publishers or agents welcome to contact me
through this web site.
Inquires, questions, and comments about this article
or Mr. Walkowski's books can be sent to: paul@gis.net |
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